London (CNN) — Six women attempted to climb one of Europe’s tallest buildings Thursday to rally against Shell’s Arctic drilling plan.
The women from environmental group Greenpeace said they dodged security guards around the London landmark and once on top, they planned to “to hang a huge work of art that captures the beauty” of the Arctic.
“They expect the grueling project to take most of the day,” the environmental group, Greenpeace said in a statement. “The lead climbers are ‘free climbing’ (scaling the building without assistance) but are fixing safety ropes as they progress. They are carrying the huge work of art in backpacks and will install it this afternoon if they reach the summit. “
The six started their climb at dawn and were live streaming the climb.
They opted to climb The Shard because it towers over the oil giant’s global headquarters on the Southbank of the Thames, according to the statement .
“Shell is leading the oil companies’ drive into the Arctic, investing billions in its Alaskan and Russian drilling programs,” it said. ” A worldwide movement of millions has sprung up to stop them, but Shell is refusing to abandon its plans.
The climbers are from the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, Poland, Holland and Belgium.
The Shard released a statement it is working with authorities to ensure the climbers’ safety.
“Our primary focus is on the safety of the protesters, and of the workers and visitors to our building, which remains open today,” The Shard said in a statement.
Greenpeace’s environmental campaign aims to turn the area around the North Pole into a global sanctuary and unavailable to industrialization.
Shell defended its Arctic drilling.
“Oil and gas production from the Arctic is not new.,” it said in a statement. “The Arctic region currently produces about 10% of the world’s oil and 25% of its gas. If responsibly developed, Arctic energy resources can help offset supply constraints and maintain energy security for consumers throughout the world.”
Of the protests, the oil giant said it respects the freedom of expression.
“We only ask that they do so with their safety and the safety of others, including Shell personnel and customers in mind,” Shell said.
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When political leaders do out of there way to make make mollifying statements on the economy, it’s a sure thing the opposite is about to happen. Platitudes are flowing in Japan as Haruhiko Kuroda, Japan’s central bank governor, says the risk of systemic instability is “not large”.
The correct interpretation of course is “the risk of instability is huge”. Please consider Haruhiko Kuroda says rates must stay low until economy improves.
Haruhiko Kuroda, Japan’s central bank governor, said the country’s financial system could cope with rising interest rates only once the economy improved, as he laid out the stakes in his attempt to tame the volatile bond market.Japanese banks and insurance companies have accumulated vast holdings of government bonds whose value would fall sharply if investors demanded higher yields on newly issued debt. The BoJ calculates that a 1 percentage point rise in rates would lead to mark-to-market losses equivalent to 10 per cent of tier one capital at big banks, and 20 per cent at weaker regional lenders.
Mr Kuroda said he believed that Japanese financial institutions were “strong enough to deal with these negative effects even if such a situation occurred” and that the risk of systemic instability was “not large”.
Rates on 10-year Japanese government bonds climbed to 1 per cent last week for the first time in a year. The market has gyrated since Mr Kuroda announced in April that the BoJ would dramatically increase its purchases of JGBs, to the equivalent of about 70 per cent of new issuance, in an effort to stimulate lending and investment and reverse more than a decade and a half of consumer price declines.
Rates Climb Even With Japan Buying 70% of New Issuance
Rates are climbing even with massive purchases by the bank of Japan. That tells you banks and pension plans are attempting to unload existing inventory as well.
There is no one to unload to, except the Bank of Japan. Yet given age demographics, pension plans are now net sellers of Japanese bonds. And Japan is still piling on more debt with a 10-trillion Yen ($ 128 billion) stimulus package.
Kuroda says “rates must stay low until the economy improves” but in spite of the improvement in the stock market, business investment and demand for loans shrank for the 5th straight quarter.
The only way rates can stay low with this borrowing is is the Bank of Japan buys 100% of new issuance and all sellers of existing bonds at a price the central bank likes.
This is theoretically possible, but only if Japan is prepared to suffer the consequences of a collapsing Yen.
Further Reading
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis
